Saturday, May 15, 2010

Headlines - Saturday May 15

I'm happy to report that Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein dropped $26 million -- in cash -- on his new 15 Central Park West duplex.
 
 
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Cartoon by Andy Singer
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The Real Life Oil Slut
 
 
 
"How much harm could I possibly do? I'm just a microturd in the Intergalactic Plantetary Dimension."
 
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Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, a well-connected former Washington lobbyist, has calmly said the oil slick looming offshore is just a sheen in most places and there's no reason for people to panic. 
 
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Lawsuit to Challenge Salazar's Wholesale Disregard of Marine Mammal Protection Laws in Gulf of Mexico
400-plus Oil Projects Illegally Approved by Salazar Without Permits to Harm Endangered Whales
 
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Poor white, Catholic Pat Buchanan. He feels soooo besieged:

Pat Buchanan, everyone's favorite MSNBC pundit, wondered in his syndicated column this week why Democratic presidents don't nominate white Christians to the Supreme Court anymore.

"If Kagan is confirmed, Jews, who represent less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, will have 33 percent of the Supreme Court seats," Buchanan wrote. "Is this the Democrats' idea of diversity?"

And bless you, TPM commenter pmccoy, for providing this response:

Did you know that one of Buchanan's relatives was killed in the camps during the Holocaust? He fell out of a guard tower.

 
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Aaah, so NASCAR stands for National Association of Severely Cretinous American Racists

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Wisco: Just a reminder: Republicans lie
 
Yesterday, I included this video in my daily roundup. Think Progress had caught Republicans attending a morning fundraiser with the oil and gas industry on the very same day that the House would take testimony from executives about the Deepwater Horizon gusher polluting the Gulf of Mexico. It's Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, the first interview, that I want to examine here:
 
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h/t Dick
 
This is a big part of the problem 

According to the new WSJ/NBC poll, more Americans think congressional Democrats are on the side of large corporations than think they are on the side of average Americans:

When it comes to the problems in the financial markets, do you think that (INSERT PERSON/GROUP) is more concerned about the interests of average Americans or more concerned about the interests of large corporations? (RANDOMIZE)

President Obama: 51% average Americans, 36% large corporations
Republicans in Congress: 20% average Americans, 71% large corporations
Democrats in Congress: 35% average Americans, 53% large corporations

In today's political and economic environment, with nearly 10% unemployment and corporate malfeasance everywhere you look, it's a disaster for congressional Democrats to be seen as supporting the interests of large corporations over average Americans. If the Democratic brand means nothing else, it should mean fighting for the little guy and for the middle class.

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Obama makes a

funny.

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GM crops killing non-GM crops? Franken-farming really needs to go.

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Morford: Is Laura Bush going to hell?

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Corporate tax cheats declare economic warfare against the US by moving profits overseas "As America struggles with record deficits, tax dodgers apparently are taking billions of dollars out of the country. ... A new report from the business giant Bloomberg News finds hundreds of companies skirting $60 billion in taxes, and the practice is completely legal. ... The figure, $60 billion, is more than the budget for the entire Department of Homeland Security. ... "We are obviously now in a time of enormous deficits, and we should be broadening our tax base," said tax economist Martin Sullivan. "This phenomenon is moving exactly in the opposite direction.""

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You can bet that support for future offshore drilling will
vary inversely with the distance from the Gulf Coast.

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Those of us who'd been following the Family Circus, DT steps of the shaved chimp known as George W. Bush knew that his administration had waged an all-out war on science that stretched from NASA to the Surgeon General's Office to the EPA to the FDA to the Dept. of the Interior and beyond.

So it kind of feels like a blast from the past, if recent events in the Gulf of Mexico permit me the unintentional pun, when I read stories like this from the New York Times, especially when they're front and center, above the fold:
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/05/blast-from-past.html

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Remember the story a few days ago about Delta losing a dog on a flight? Seems United wants to beat them at that game and start losing people.

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Blackwater shows up at NRA convention with guns blazing, sets up display of assault rifles. 

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President Obama Confirms That He Is 'Angry,' Continues With Scheduled Events

President Barack Obama's White House staff alerted reporters last evening that the President would be hosting a press event late Friday morning to inform them of his "anger" with both the public and private responses to a recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Reporters were also made aware of the President's intention to use such language as "frustrated" during this media availability.